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Cooking Cajun’ – 25 best Cajun-Creole dishes ever

Have you been lucky enough to catch a string of beads thrown your way by the Krewe of Bacchus during the revelry of a Mardi Gras parade?

Or sipped on a Hurricane cocktail in the dueling piano bar at Pat O’Brien’s? Listened to authentic jazz music at Preservation Hall?

O New Orleans. How I love thee. Let me count the ways.

I spend lots of time in Latin America and when I’m asked my opinion for which cities should be at the top of the list for foreigners visiting the United States I always include New Orleans in my Top 5 list.

It is the only region in the entire United States that truly has a unique indigenous cuisine. Although Cajun and Creole cuisines are strongly influenced by both Spanish and French culinary traditions, the cooks of Louisiana can truly boast that no other cuisine is quite the same.

How many cities can lay claim to having created a world famous dish in their kitchens? In the USA perhaps there are really only two. One, of course, would be New York City, home of Delmonico’s, where the famed Baked Alaska dessert and Lobster Newberg were created and the restaurant at the Waldorf Hotel, where the famed dishes, Eggs Benedict and the Waldorf Salad, originated. The other city would be New Orleans, where Bananas Foster was born at Brennan’s and Oysters Rockefeller, of equal fame, was shucked into existence at Antoine’s.

If you’re a restaurant aficionado, then New Orleans has absolutely got to be on your bucket list.

But If you can’t make it to Bourbon Street this February for the revelry leading up to the last day before the beginning of lint, you can at least enjoy the great food from NOLA by whipping up a few classic Cajun or Creole recipes at home.

Pick a few and invite some friends over for a nice informal dinner party with some of the best food on the planet. And then find your way to one of those specialty liquor stores that only sell the rare stuff and buy yourself a bottle of Sazerac rye which is the lead ingredient in at least three or four of the world’s most famous cocktails, including, as you might have guessed, the Sazerac cocktail.

You’ll be needing some bitters. And your bar might be equipped with a small bottle of Angostura bitters that is an essential ingredient in world famous cocktails like the Manhattan, or dribbled on the foam atop whiskey or pisco sour. But any bartender worth his (or her) weight in gold will also have a bottle of Peychaud’s bitters, from, you guessed it, Louisiana, close at hand. Buy a bottle while you’re picking up the rye whiskey.

On your shopping excursion you’ll need to pick up a bottle of Cajun hot sauce. But where you can find a bottle of authentic Cajun hot sauce if you don’t live in Louisiana?

Well. I’ve been in grocery stores in Lima, Buenos Aires, Kiev, London and Amsterdam. And you know what? They all stock Tabasco, which is proudly manufactured in the state of Louisiana. Finding one of the other 100 or so varieties made in that great state might be a little more difficult unless you live there.

But that’s okay. Tabasco will work just fine in any of our recipes calling for hot sauce.

So let’s get down to it. Pick a few of these great Cajun or Creole recipes, whip up a few Hurricanes and Sazerac cocktails, and party hardy, in true New Orleans style.

And one more thing. While you’re out shopping don’t forget to pick up several strings of colorful beads at the costume shops. It’s mandatory to pass those out at any good Mardi Gras celebration.

And as always. Eat and drink responsibly.

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